Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Rosemary Lehmberg's priorities beget murder in Indiana

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg on Monday defended how her office handled a sexual assault case against a man who is now a suspect in a multiple homicide investigation in Indiana, saying that the plea deal a prosecutor recommended seemed “reasonable” given what was known about him at the time.

Darren Vann, 43, who authorities say confessed this month to killing seven women in Indiana, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2009 for raping a woman in Austin two years earlier.

....

He left the Texas prison system in July 2013 and went to Indiana, officials have said.

It was there that authorities discovered the bodies of seven women. Austin police have started reviewing missing-persons and cold cases for any ties to Vann.

....

Vann’s criminal history at the time didn’t reflect other sexual assaults or any convictions, she said.

However, Indiana court records from 2004 describe him grabbing a woman in a chokehold, dousing her with gasoline and threatening to set her on fire.